> Despite several years climbing and several ropes later I still feel a little in the dark about when to ditch a rope.
>
> So whats the secret? How and when do you decide a rope has had it?
In reply to Removed User: I agree, apart from obvious damage, I think you know in your heart when it's had enough.
I retired mine last week, was damaged so I cut it short, but the rest of the rope seemed to be really soft, folded too easily, knots became a nightmare to undo, it lost it's dry treatment, and at 5 and a bit years old I decided I wasn't going to lead on it anymore.
Still be happy to top rope with it for a bit longer I guess.
> So whats the secret? How and when do you decide a rope has had it?
I ditch mine when they become any of the following: Lost, worrying, quite stiff, alarmingly spongey, significantly damaged mid-span, too short, contaminated or redundant beside a shiny new bargain.
In reply to Jonny2vests: I've got an old Mammut one that's on its way to a stiff and wiry retirement. It does happen!
To the OP: whenever I look at the rope and think "I wonder if this will work?" - if you don't trust it deep down, something isn't right. Plus all the others above.
> (In reply to sparkass)
>
> I ditch mine when they become any of the following: Lost, worrying, quite stiff, alarmingly spongey, significantly damaged mid-span, too short, contaminated or redundant beside a shiny new bargain.
It takes a special kind of neglect. Actually I think it's mostly age and sunlight that does it though washing them seems to make it worse. Hard to tell really from such a small sample what causes it.
> Not dynamic ropes...But my caving club tends to retire ropes because they get too stiff.
Do cavers also use dynamic ropes or are they static? I know on TR routes at indoor walls the ropes are usually a lot stiffer as they're static (or semi-dynamic I think)
Depends, it seems the EU came up with the semistatic standard with caving in mind. Semistatic Type A ropes can take 5 FF1 falls with 100kg, and have a <6kN impact force for a FF0.3 100kg case.
(ie: http://bealplanet.com/sport/anglais/corde-spelenium105.php )
Though then we have some of the iconic american caving ropes like the PMI pit rope. Not sure about the specifics of that rope, I've never seen a copy of whatever standard CI 1801:1998 is that it's advertised as complying with.
Most of the cavers I know only differentiate between dynamic (enough to lead) and static (everything else).
Podcast Mountain Air - 6. Rob Woodall, Britain's Greatest Peak Bagger?
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...